KARACHI: The Supreme Court has warned the builders of the under-construction Tejori Heights building of coercive measures if they failed to pay compensation to allottees within three months.

It also directed the Karachi commissioner to comply with the court order immediately if the builders failed to demolish the building within stipulated period.

A three-judge SC bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed during the proceedings held on Oct 29 had ordered the demolition of the under-construction multi-storey building in Gulshan-i-Iqbal within four weeks and issued its detailed order on Friday.

The bench in its judgement said that they allowed the request of the lawyer for the builders seeking three-month time for refund of amount to the people who had booked units in the building.

“In case the applicants fail in making the payment of compensation to the persons who have booked the units in the building Tejori Heights, the court shall take coercive measures against the applicants to ensure that compliance of the order is made,” it added.

The judgement further said that the builders had failed to establish their title and ownership of the land measuring 0.23 Ghuntas in Survey No.188 (purported Survey No.653) Deh Gujhro, Gulshan-i-Iqbal on which the building in question was being constructed and the very construction being contrary to the law was required to be demolished immediately.

At this stage, Main Raza Rabbani, lawyer for the builders, made a categorical statement that the applicants would themselves demolish the building and requested for a reasonable time in this regard, it added.

“We have pointed out to the counsel that two weeks’ time will be sufficient for the purpose of demolishing the building, but he requested for four weeks’ time for the said purpose,” the order further said.

Thereafter, the apex court directed the builders to demolish the whole building and clear its debris positively within four weeks under the strict supervision of the Karachi commissioner.

It also asked the commissioner to ensure that the builders must comply with the court order in letter and spirit and in case they fail to do so the commissioner must immediately ensure that the building was removed and the debris was cleared from the land and the cost incurred by the commissioner would be paid by the builders.

The commissioner shall submit a compliance report in court, it added.

The lawyer for the builders also submitted that there was an office on the premises of the building site where files of allotttees were being kept and such files were required for payment of compensation to the allotttees.

Subsequently, the apex court directed the commissioner to allow the builders to enter the office premises for removing the files after preparing a full inventory of each and every file showing the names and addresses of the persons. It also asked the commissioner to place such inventory in court.

The under-construction building is located near the abandoned Gilani railway station of the Karachi Circular Railway in Block 13-D, Gulshan-i-Iqbal and in December last year, the apex court had ordered immediate suspension of work, barred the builders from creating a third-party interest and directed the commissioner to take over the construction site till further order.

The project is owned by the Karachi Town Builders and Developers and the proprietor of the company is Javed Iqbal Qureshi, who is father-in-law of politician and businessman Kamran Tessori.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2021